Purse-seining for Salmon off Glen Acres, Vashon Island Washington fall 1980

Background (such as I recall it): This is a by-gone era around Vashon Island in particular, and maybe in Puget Sound in general, even though current (2015) fishing regulations do allow non-tribal, commercial purse seine salmon fishing. Dated Ektachrome slides.

These few photos are of purse seine fishing for salmon in the fall of 1980 off Glen Acres (where I lived: these photos were shot from my deck) on the northeast side of Vashon Island, here featuring two of Vashon Island's own seiners, the Delight, and the Janet G.

FUN FACTS: Lots of historical information and interested comments about the Delight and the Janet G are here, in a Facebook album "Purse-seining for salmon off Glen Acres, 1980" I posted to the Facebook group "Old Vashon Pictures and Stories."

A few quotes:

"The Janet G ... was launched in Dockton in 1929." -- Jim Sherman.

"The seiner Delight is my cousin Wally Green's from Bellingham. We fished around each other my whole life in Southeast Alaska. I was teaching at VHS the day these pics were taken and my nephew filled in for me" -- Skip Greene.

"I fished on it [the Delight] in the 80's." -- Jim Sherman

""Tahlequah Notes -- Purse-seiners are doing a splendid business off Spring Beach, Paradise Cove and Sunrise. Excellent catches are reported in silvers, including scads of the big hook-nose ones that tip the scales at from 14 to 20 pounds. Very few dog salmon are reported, so far." (Oct 24, 1935 Vashon Island News-Record)" -- Mike Sudduth.

""Purse Seiners Report Fishing Extremely Bad -- Commercial fishermen have found salmon fishing extremely poor in Inland waters since the season opened a few days ago. Purse-seiners working in the waters off the Standard Oil docks at Portage say fishing is very unsatisfactory, not one worth-while catch having been reported." (Oct. 10, 1940 Vashon Island News-Record)" -- Mike Sudduth.

I seem to recall that the purse seiners were very common every fall during the late 1970's through the early 1980's. The sharp-eyed will notice kelp beds in the near shore; the State of Washington let a geoduck-harvesting lease in the early 1980's which absolutely carpet-bombed the bottom all along the Glen Acres coast by a SCUBA diver wielding an eight-inch suction hose. The kelp beds disappeared, as did the purse seiners, as did the enormous flocks of migratory Black Brant Geese I used to see every spring as they flew north to the Arctic for the summer.

Pure coincidence, I'm sure...

Purse-seining_Salmon_Glen_Acres_Vashon_WA_1980_003

Purse-seining_Salmon_Glen_Acres_Vashon_WA_1980_004

Purse-seining_Salmon_Glen_Acres_Vashon_WA_1980_005

Purse-seining_Salmon_Glen_Acres_Vashon_WA_1980_007

Purse-seining_Salmon_Glen_Acres_Vashon_WA_1980_008

Purse-seining_Salmon_Glen_Acres_Vashon_WA_1980_009

Return to FinchHaven Photography Archives: the Nineteen-Eighties: Washington

Return to FinchHaven Photography Archives: the Nineteen-Eighties

Return to FinchHaven Photography Archives

John Sage / FinchHaven Photography Archives

Purse-seining for Salmon off Glen Acres, Vashon Island Washington fall 1980

Canon EOS 1D Mark IV digital imaging

All my digital photography
copyright John D Sage/FinchHaven™
1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 etc etc...

W3C validated: Fri 08 Mar 2013 06:53:08 AM PST

This page preened using Geany 1.23.1 at www.FinchHaven.com by Webmaster

Last modified: Sat 28 Mar 2015 08:25:40 AM PDT